Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Bearded meadow-parsnip

BEARDED MEADOW-PARSNIP

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Thaspium barbinode (Michx. ) Nutt.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 20-40 inches

Family: Apiaceae - Parsley Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Stems:

Erect, branched, nodes hispidulous, internodes glabrous.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline. Basal leaves: petiole 4 to 4 inches; blade 2-3-ternately compound, ovate to triangular in outline, 2 to 4.8 inches long, 1.4 to 6 inches wide; leaflets rhombic to ovate or lanceolate, .4 to 4 inches, margins coarsely serrate, ultimate segments 1/8 to 4/5 inch wide, surfaces finely hispid, especially along veins. Cauline leaves gradually reduced above; petiole present or absent; blade 1-2-ternately compound.

Inflorescences:

Compound umbels, terminal and axillary; peduncles 16 to 32 inches; involucral bracts 0; rays 8-15, nearly equal, .4 to 1.6 inch; umbellets 9-19-flowered; involucel bractlets 0 or 4-9, lanceolate to linear, 1/25 to 1/6 inch.

Flowers:

Pedicels 1/12 to 1.5 inch; calyx lobes 5, triangular to obovate; petals 5, pale yellow or cream-colored, obovate; ovary glabrous or obscurely papillose; stamens 5; styles 2; stigmas 2.

Fruits:

Schizocarps not splitting, oblong-ovoid, flattened at right angle to commissure, 1/8 to 1/4 inch, glabrous or obscurely papillose; mericarps brown, ribs corky, wings 1/25 to 1/16 inch wide, oil tubes conspicuous.

Habitat:

Maple-basswood, floodplain, and mesic oak-hickory forests, rocky bluffs, stream banks

Distribution:

East 1/5 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Alluding to the similarity to the genus Thapsia and barbinode, beard and node, alluding to the minutely hairy nodes.

Bearded meadow-parsnip inflorescence